Rescue
by Kathryn Claire O'Connor
Summary: Freddie's hit an all-time low after graduation and ran to NYC to get away from it all. When he helps a little girl in a dangerous situation, those he helped just might be the ones to rescue him from himself... *Challenge from Challenge King. Two-shot*
1. Chapter 1

**Another challenge from Challenge King has been completed. Enjoy the two-shot, my lovelies!:)**

* * *

Freddie closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and took a deep breath, one that was intended to clear his depressed thoughts. He was in New York City now, though, which meant that the only air he breathed in was full of smoky gasoline fumes from the highway and sticky cooking oil, thanks to a nearby food truck. Not the best quality of air to find in a kids' playground, but the guy who owned the food truck was smart to come to a place full of whiny kids with nannies who were willing to shut them up with hotdogs and fries.

Like that young woman, Freddie mused, catching sight of a pretty redhead who was trying to corral her charges – four of them, if Freddie had it right.

"Jessie, Mrs. Kipling has discovered the glory of wading in the fountain and refuses to come out," an Indian kid told the nanny, and though Freddie hadn't meant to begin eavesdropping, he became curious at that.

"Jessie!" a blonde teenage girl complained loudly from Jessie's other side before the nanny could say anything about whoever Mrs. Kipling was, "Luke and Zuri are trying to sell my phone to a hobo!"

"Luke! Zuri!" the exasperated young woman exclaimed towards the direction of two other kids, who did indeed look to be trying to do business with a homeless man. "Stop it! Now!"

"Why?" the kid who must've been Luke asked casually. "It's not like Emma doesn't lose her phone every other week anyway; Mom and Dad will just buy her a new one."

And then came the statement that no one had expected from the "hobo."

"Well then, in that case, I think I'll just take the phone for free." Then suddenly there was a gun in Zuri's face and everyone who saw the piece screamed as the man sneered, "Or the little girl… Which do you think your parents would pay more to get back, little girl?"

Freddie wasn't exactly known for his physical prowess, but being around Sam so much – at least in the past – had taught him some things about fighting, and he sprang for the man nearly without thinking. Somehow no one was killed in the ensuing fight, and only the duo involved were even hurt. After Freddie managed to get in a few solid slugs to his opponent, he saw that there was a cop running towards them who had apparently seen the whole thing. That was going to save him some trouble.

He was breathing deeply as the cop skidded to a stop and took over where he had left off, slapping cuffs onto the guy and hauling him onto his feet.

"Thanks for your help there, man," the cop said to Freddie.

Freddie nodded, catching his breath.

"My partner's going to be here in a couple of minutes; until then, I think I'm going to sit in my patrol car with our gunslinger here, if everybody's okay?"

Freddie, Jessie, and the kids nodded, though the youngest girl was shaking and was hanging with a death grip onto her nanny.

"Gosh," Jessie gasped, kneeling down in front of Zuri to look her in the eye as she asked, "Are you sure you're okay, sweetie?"

Zuri nodded.

"Alright," Jessie said, pulling her in for a tight hug before she stood and addressed Freddie, saying, "Thanks a ton; you rescued us there."

"It was nothing," Freddie said modestly. "I did what any decent person would've done."

"Well, still," Jessie said, "Surely we can repay you somehow; my bosses are _loaded_."

Freddie needed the money rather desperately – having something of a midlife crisis when he was just barely out of high school and impetuously moving to New York City because of it didn't do much for a man's pocketbook – but he wasn't about to say so.

"How about we buy you lunch, at least," Jessie suggested, "Once the cops take our statements and everything?"

"Well… alright," he agreed, giving in with a shrug of his shoulders.

Something about the apparently plucky young woman in front of him made him want to get to know her better, so why not take the chance if she was offering it?

* * *

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" Emma exclaimed suddenly looking at him with wide eyes later on in the afternoon when Freddie was sitting at an outdoor bistro eating lunch with Jessie and the Ross kids. "I know where I recognized you from! You're Freddie Benson from iCarly!"

Freddie paused, releasing a deep sigh before he answered, "Yeah, I was… but that's kind of a thing of the past now."

Because Carly was in Italy, Sam was in L.A., and Spencer and his mother had both gone a little crazy here recently. Therefore, Freddie had almost lost it as well and fled to New York in hopes of keeping his sanity. Not that his plan was currently working very well, of course.

"Well, still," Luke said. "You're kind of impressive, man."

Freddie smiled weakly when Jessie and Luke's siblings agreed with the statement. "Thanks, guys."

But he didn't know just how thankful he was going to be for these guys later that evening.

* * *

It had been a good day, Freddie told himself as he looked out the dinky window in his horrible apartment – the place really did remind him of the one he had stayed in that time he had moved out of his mom's apartment a couple of years ago. It really had been a good day… but maybe that's what had put him in such a bad mood.

He didn't trust good days anymore; they just made the bad days that came far too often that much worse. He sighed, opening the window and sitting precariously on the sill as he looked out at the skyline, dangerously alone with his dark thoughts.

He wobbled on the window sill and braced a hand against the wall to steady himself.

And then came the thought.

Why? Why hold on? Why keep living like this? It wasn't like there was anyone around who was going to miss him anymore. Why not just let himself go? Why not stop holding on to whatever he had left and fall?

He looked down at the street far below, judging the likelihood of living or dying if he hit the ground from this height as the thought took root.

Why not just jump?

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**Reviews honestly make my day if you feel like dropping me one. Hopefully you enjoyed this first half of the story, and thanks for reading.:)**


	2. Chapter 2

Freddie was suddenly startled nearly out of his own skin when his cell phone rang in his pocket, a abrupt call back to reality.

"Hello?" he said softly into the phone, surprised that anyone was calling him.

"Is this Freddie Benson?" an unfamiliar-sounding woman asked.

"Yes…"

"I'm Christina Ross; I'm afraid my son, Luke, copied your cell phone number earlier today when you were with him. I decided to put the number to good use though and just wanted to call and personally thank you for what you did in the park."

Freddie really wasn't as star struck as maybe he should've been – probably the suicidal thoughts and all that, he reasoned – and said only, "You're welcome, but really I was only doing the right thing."

"Mr. Benson," Christina asked suddenly, "Do you have a job?"

"You mean am I employed? No, not currently. Why?"

"Well, I know that this is sudden, but my husband and I have been discussing it this evening, and we'd like to hire a security guard of sorts… mostly technical work really, taking care of our panic room and security systems. Considering what happened earlier today and the technical expertise my children told me you have, Morgan and I thought of you first."

"You're offering a job to a total stranger?" Freddie asked slowly.

"You don't have any sort of a record that I should be concerned about, do you?"

"No…"

"Then, yes, I am; it's not the first time I've done it either, and Jessie's become the best thing that's happened to our family in a long time."

"Well, I doubt I'll be as good as all that… but if you're offering a job, then, yeah, I'll be willing to give it a try."

"Great!" Christina said. "Drop by my office tomorrow morning at eight and we can discuss particulars, then you can start at the house the day after, okay?"

"Okay," Freddie agreed.

Christina rattled off an address to meet her at, and Freddie hung up the phone with an actual smile on his face and excitement starting to bubble up. This day had just gone from good to unbelievably great! And to think that he had been just about ready to take a dive from his apartment window…

That phone call from Christina Ross had probably just rescued him – had kept him from taking his own life.

* * *

The meeting with his new employer went well the next day, and so the day after that found Freddie stepping off the elevator into the posh Ross apartment.

"Freddie!" Zuri screamed the moment she saw him emerge into the living room. "Everybody, Freddie's here!"

Jessie and the other kids came tumbling down the stairs then as Freddie waved at them before saying, "Mrs. Ross told me once I got here I needed to ask somebody named Bertram to show me the room where the security cameras are monitored?"

"Good luck with that," Jessie said with a smirk, pointing to a lump on the couch just as said lump of a man let loose on a loud snort of a snore. "He won't wake up from his post-breakfast nap for at least another hour," she smiled as she said, "But I'll be glad to show you where it is," she turned to her four charges to say, "As soon as you guys are on your way to school. Your ride's waiting for you right outside the lobby, so get going."

The kids reluctantly shuffled into the elevator after Jessie armed them with backpacks and lunches while Freddie watched the early-morning interaction between them all. Something told him that this was going to be an… interesting place to work. At least Jessie seemed to have a decent handle on the kids' behavior, and they liked her. He liked her too, for that matter, he decided. The admiration that he had felt for the way she handled herself at the park two days ago had – for some random reason – blossomed into that funny feeling in his stomach whenever she smiled or laughed… and he really liked her huge, brown eyes.

"Okay," she said, taking a deep breath and turning to him as the elevator began its descent with her charges inside of it. "On to the security camera monitors, right?"

"Right," Freddie answered, following the redhead down a hallway, into the depths of the apartment and then the dark room that was going to become his new center of command.

"This is it," she said, gesturing to the tiny space that they were both standing in, barely a yard of space between them. "The panic room is just across the hall."

"Nice," Freddie said, sliding down into the swivel chair at what was now his desk and admiring the picture quality of the feed that he was seeing. "They've got some really phenomenal equipment here."

"Is it?" Jessie asked. "I wouldn't really know; most tech on a Texas army base is off limits to army brats like _moi._"

"Yeah, it is," Freddie said, gesturing her closer. "You know how most feeds are at least kid of grainy on security cameras? This isn't that way at all."

"You're right," Jessie agreed, putting one hand on his desk and the other around the back of his chair as she leaned forward to get a closer look, chin hovering just over his left shoulder as Freddie's senses were suddenly hit with the sweet fragrance of cucumber-melon scented shampoo.

"I guess that's why the Ross's hired me; I know my way around tech."

"Being hot can't hurt either."

It was clear that Jessie hadn't meant to say the words aloud when the two of them turned towards one another with twin sets of saucer-sized eyes and exclamations of "What?"

"I am so sorry!" Jessie exclaimed, a look of horrified embarrassment taking over her face. "I did not mean to say that! It's just been forever since I've talked to a real, nice-looking guy, and Tony and I broke up recently and… never mind. I'm so sorry. I'll shut up now."

"No," Freddie said carefully, slowly sitting back in his chair as he watched her. "It's okay." He smiled as he added, "You're pretty nice yourself."

She blushed, her hair falling in her face and brushing against Freddie's shoulder as she lowered her head bashfully and asked, "You really think so?"

"Yeah, I really do."

He moved to catch her eye without her hair in the way, and maybe he shouldn't have done that, because suddenly their faces were even closer than before. He didn't register what he was doing until he was already in the act and kissing her, recklessly loving the strawberry flavor of her lip gloss as she kissed him back.

Suddenly his life was looking like something he wanted to keep on living. He may have been the one to rescue Jessie and the kids at the park, but it seemed like they were going to be the ones to rescue him from himself.

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**Reviews honestly make my day if you feel like dropping me one. Hopefully you enjoyed this story, and thanks for reading.:)**


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